In recent years, in various electronic devices, spaces for installing electronic components have tended to be reduced. Thus, capacitors have a demand for a reduction in profile. For the reduction of capacitors in profile, it is effective to reduce the thicknesses of dielectric layers. As capacitors having dielectric layers being small in thickness, capacitors in which dielectric layers are formed using thin film forming techniques such as sputtering method are known (hereafter, referred to as thin film capacitors) (refer to Patent Literature 1). A thin film capacitor described in Patent Literature 1 includes a first electrode layer, a dielectric layer, and a second electrode layer, which are laminated and formed on a base substrate in this order.
Conventional thin film capacitors have a problem in that a defect occurs in a dielectric layer as the thickness of the dielectric layer is made small, which causes a fault due to short circuit, increases a leakage current, and decreases a withstanding voltage. A defect in a dielectric layer here refers to a foreign object existing on the dielectric layer or inside the dielectric layer, or a part that shows a structure different from a normal structure of the dielectric layer, such as a crack or a pinhole of the dielectric layer.
Patent Literature 1 describes the idea that the raised problem of the occurrence of a short-circuit failure, the increase in a leakage current, and the decrease in a withstanding voltage is attributed to a pinhole portion or a grain boundary existing in a dielectric layer. Patent Literature 1 discloses, as means to solve this problem, a technique in which a material constituting the first electrode layer is oxidized between a pinhole portion or a grain boundary in the dielectric layer and the first electrode layer to form an insulating layer.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a technique to repair a broken portion in an insulating layer or the like in a multi-layered circuit board, which is formed by laminating the insulating layer or a low dielectric layer on a conductor pattern of a lower layer and laminating a conductor pattern of an upper layer on this insulating layer or the like. In this technique, after the formation of the insulating layer or the like, an insulating material such as an epoxy resin is caused to be attached to a broken portion in the insulating layer or the like, using an electrodeposition method in which the conductor pattern of the lower layer is used as one electrode.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a production method in which a resin insulator is formed in a pinhole portion or the like in a dielectric layer, using an electrophoresis.
Non Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique in which an electrically continuous defective portion is burned off by laser irradiation and brought into an OPEN state, and the defect is thereby substantially repaired.